There is a cupboard in my kitchen that I dearly love. When we bought the little farm, it was there in the woodshed. When I saw it, I knew that it would make a good addition to our kitchen. The problem was to convince my husband. He looked at it as “just on old cupboard.” I looked at it as the answer to some of my storage woes.

Years later we attended an antique show in Syracuse with his cousin and her husband. We roamed that grounds looking at all of the stuff that was gathered there. There were some old cupboards that resembled the cupboard at the Larson place. I think they were called step-back cupboards. They were marked with a rather hefty price. That definitely got my husband’s attention. Of course, these old cupboards were all cleaned up and refinished. Our old cupboard was still in the primitive stage.

Dick said, “Hey, that old cupboard at the Larson farm could be worth quite a bit of money.” I knew which cupboard he was referring to, but I playfully pretended I did not know.

“Maybe we should bring it home,” Dick said. I was overjoyed. I was ready to begin stripping the paint off of that old cupboard as soon as it came home.

We brought it home, but it did not become a piece of furniture overnight. There was much work to do. There were layers of old paint to remove.

As soon as the men brought the cupboard home I started to work on it. By then it was missing a drawer. One of our tenants had taken the drawer, I suppose filled with their stuff. As I worked on the cupboard other problems surfaced. As the paint came off I noticed a reddish stain on the doors. The different types of wood in the cupboard had taken the stain differently. That was not going to disappear.

After Dick sold his cows he was looking for projects to do. I had the cupboard in mind, but he was not exactly overjoyed at that thought. Eventually, he looked at the old cupboard — still not overjoyed. He began to sand and refinish. The cupboard kept looking better and better. Oh, I listened to a lot of complaints, but I think he was pleased with his work.

While he was filling holes, sanding, adjusting crooked doors and hinges, he told me he could have built me a new one easier. I told him he’d get his chance to show me when he built my corner cupboard to house my phone books and dish towels.

He had to build a drawer to replace the one that was missing. That was not a problem since he had all kinds of scraps of wood around here to work with. The new drawer came out perfectly. When we were in Amish country we found a new handle for that drawer that matched the other ones.

When I redid my kitchen after Dick was gone, I removed a wood burning stove. I did not want the boys to have to cut wood for me and to keep my chimney clean. That meant that I reconfigured my kitchen entirely different. Now I was able to put cupboards where the stove had been. I now had more light in the kitchen as well. I also had a whole lot more counter space.

The man who measured for my cupboards asked me, “You do want a refrigerator, don’t you?” I showed him where I had my refrigerator tucked into a spot strategically located between my kitchen, dining room, and pantry. I told him the refrigerator would stay there.

He was anxious to extend my counter and locate my sink by a window that would be installed where a door was at that point. I told him that I did not want that. I wanted to be able to open that door to get out onto my porch to eat at the little bistro table. I also reminded him there was no cellar beneath that section that used to be part of the porch. My water would probably freeze.

When you are fixing old houses, you run into many surprises. Tearing apart a wall we found some old boards that had the name of a carpenter and the date that the porch was added to the kitchen. We still have those boards up on top of the cupboard that is newly refinished. My husband dropped a board with our names on it into the wall where he was working. Maybe someday another owner will find that board and know when we redid that section.

My kitchen now has new cupboards — not like the ones in my office that were handmade. The man who made them was no longer in business so I resorted to purchasing them. Am I happy with my new cupboards?

Not exactly.

Although the drawers look deep, they are not as deep as they appear. The shelves also do not handle heavy dishes without bowing.

If I had it to do over I would contact the Amish to have them make my cupboards. My daughter has some Amish-made cupboards and they are beautiful.

The cupboard that my husband refinished for me holds all of my dishes. Those shelves are real wood and sturdy. I absolutely love my old cupboard. The patina on it makes a pretty piece of furniture that is extremely functional.

Ann Swanson writes from her home in Russell, Pa. Contact at hickoryheights1@verizon.net.